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Village of Shield's Bluff
The Home of Heavy Metal The Village of Shield’s Bluff, population around 500, is a mining settlement. Despite a population that ranks it as a solid village, it's not any official Marquisate maps. Shield's Bluff is remote, far away from North Point and most other regional villages – and that sense of distance helps keep it out of sight and out of mind. This is carefully cultivated to remain that way as Shield's Bluff is also a key strategic source of the iron used for the production of steel for the Marquisate (and indeed, the Commonwealth). The Long Road The route is about 30 miles by shoreline road, about 32 miles by crest road to North Point. The turn-offs have signs, but there is a minor field enchant at the lower coastal road forks and the highlands turn-off that tends to make most folk forget they've seen it there. For a merchant’s ride in a loaded, horse-drawn cart, the 30-32 mile route makes it about a day and a half ride. Marquisate mobility with horseless carriages takes that down to a couple of hours, tops. Boat rides vary, with standard sail usually taking about 6 hours going south from North Point (winds out of the north), then about 8 hours back to the Keep. The Protected Perch The village is on natural plateau, a pocket that's mostly obscured from the northern winds. That's the "shield" in "Shield's Bluff." That plateau is roughly halfway up the 1100-foot cliffs of the Sword Coast. That makes for a spectacular view, and that's where the "Bluff" comes from. There is a winding, switchback trail to fishing docks below, with the pilings of the pier made from stone cut from the cliffs. From the town plateau, the trail follows a gorge upward and winds behind a gentle waterfall from a small stream that flows from a grasslands spring above. The path is steep but wide, with enough of a drop that it discourages most from travel down the rough access roads. Once in town, there is a sense of enchantment even without a single charm spell cast. This natural, highly protected area is an idyllic refuge. The instinct of "home" grows very quickly, creating an insular territoriality that makes most never want to leave. On the bluff, there are four "digs" into the side of the cliffs, three of which are inhabited, with a strong cultural influence and exchange of halfling and dwarf among the humans. These are “the Dens,” a carefully excavated and artfully carved subterranean community. While the halflings and dwarves prefer to live primarily in “the dens,” the human and elf population live on the plateau. It is a spectacular view, with both aesthetics and tactics in mind. An Ore-able Way to Make a Living... The fourth mid-cliff dig, right at the back wall of the bluff, is a working mine that extracts magnetite ore. The ore is high enough quality that it can be thrown right into the Gond’s Forge blast furnaces at North Point Keep to make pig iron on its way to steel. It’s not the only mine that supports North Point, but given the steel connection used for the creation of enchanted Arcanite, it’s one of the strategically important mines. Category:DM/GM Notes